Does An Injury to the Breast Increase Breast Cancer Risk?

Jeffrey Weitzel, M.D., Director of Department of Clinical Cancer Genetics, Division of Population Sciences, City of Hope

Question: Does an injury to the breast increase my risk of breast cancer?

Answer: To my knowledge there are no associations whatsoever with trauma and subsequent risk of breast cancer, so an injury to the breast should not result in it. Now, there are certainly stories of women who have had a bruise or some other trauma to the breast who subsequently found a lump because they took the time to examine themselves. But the more important element of this is actually doing breast self-examination on a monthly basis so that you can become intimately familiar with your own breast architecture and can report on changes. But there is no association between trauma and cancer risk itself.